Heat is transferred by convection in numerous examples of naturally occurring fluid flow, such as wind, oceanic currents, and movements within the Earth's mantle. Convection is also used in engineering practices of homes, industrial processes, cooling of equipment, and other devices.
The rate of convective heat transfer may be improved by the use of forced airflow over a heat-absorbing device to ensure operating temperature of the device is kept within tolerable limits. One example of such a heat-absorbing device can be a friction brake as typically employed in automobiles for deceleration thereof. Another example of such a heat-absorbing device can be a processor of a computer or a heatsink specifically mounted to the processor.